I am considering buying my dream boat in the Seattle area. Problem: I'm in NY. Natural option is to ship her across the country, but that's 13K or so, and I'm toying with idea of delivering her myself under sail -- not really to save money, which it wouldn't probably, but as a challenging cruise in of itself.

Weather windows seem to indicate roughly: a summer passage down into California. A winter passage to Panama. Then a spring passage into the Caribbean/Bahamas and summer up to Florida and north to NY. Seems the trickiest part, winds wise, would be going N and NE from Panama, but other parts have favorable conditions.

I'd probably do this in long hops, with a mixture of direct offshore passages and segments where we visited inshore, so as to turn the delivery into something of a cruise at the same time. I work but have generous holidays so I'd probably be doing this in two, maybe three entirely separate trips, leaving the boat in between and flying back out to her. Very roughly 7,000 miles and I'd reckon on it taking two years port-to-port, simply because it would take that long to use the necessary amount of holidays.

This really is back of the cocktail napkin right now (how many great adventures start that way?!) and I'd really appreciate any input re timing. Has anyone done the West-East delivery? Is it rewarding? Any guesstimates on cost versus the overland shipping option? Obviously there are things like plane tickets for crew and Panama canal transit. But other costs, such as leaving the boat at extended stretches, and upkeep, might not work out a great deal worse than what I'd be paying if she was based in NY anyway.

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Telstar 28
New England

You know what the first rule of sailing is? ...Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take
a boat to the sea you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps
her going when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home.

—Cpt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity (edited)

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Fair points. If I buy -- big if still -- it's a Valiant 40. We have good offshore experience. So no particular worries on that score. The wear and tear is an issue. At the same time, the whole reason we're in the market for this kind of boat is to make big passages. Re setting off on an unfamiliar boat, I agree totally. But we'd start the journey with a modest trip that doubled as a shake down cruise, leave the boat, then come back for more, building up as we went along.

The plan is not at all the obvious one and I very well may ditch it. Just an idea now, but worth considering. So if anyone could chip in on the routing/timing aspects I'd be really grateful.

The boat itself is bviously capable. Then you appear so. so the question becomes, do you have 2 yrs or there abouts to move the boat a month here r there, leave the boat, go back home and work? wait for vacation? or just spend the next year sailing to the east coast via panama etc..........or truck it......

either way, sounds good to me. I do not have the time, so trucking would be the choice. if I had the time, sailing would be the choice.

Another thought, is start to sail, then depending where you are on the trip, if things go haywire, if truckable from that point, do so, say LA for example, or you get thru panama, take to Texas and truck to NY, or hire Bubb2 to sail the rest of the way.........

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